Himan shahabi - M. A. Student in Physical Geography Department, University of Tabriz.
Siyamand garvisi - Environment engineering expert, environment faculty of karaj
Mohammad hosaini - M. A. in urban planning, tarbyat moallem, Tehran
Ali piroti - M. A. Student in Remote sensing and GIS, Azad university of olume va tahghighat, Tehran.

Drought is the single most important weather-related natural disaster often aggravated by human action, since it affects very large areas for months and years and thus has a serious impact on regional food production, life expectancy for entire populations and economic performance of large regions or several countries. The Earth Observation satellites which include both geostationary and polar orbiting satellites provide comprehensive, synoptic and multi temporal coverage of large areas in real time and at frequent intervals and thus have become valuable for continuous monitoring of atmospheric as well as surface parameters related to drought. This paper presents a GIS and remote sensing based drought mitigation and preparedness planning by using watershed modeling approach in Saqqez watershed of Kurdistan province in Iran country. The land information in the watershed was derived from 0.6m satellite imagery. Land use map and Digital Elevation Map was developed as the prime source of information on land characteristics of the watershed. To accomplish the task a number of Geographic Information System (GIS) models were developed as ETo Model, Actual ET Model, Rainfall Run-off Model, Groundwater recharge model, Grazing Potential and Rangeland Suitability Model. Modified FAO-24 Blaney Criddle Method was used for the development of GIS ET Model. Sacramento and Maxey-Eakin methods were used for Rainfall Run-off and Groundwater recharge model respectively. These GIS-based hydrologic data models facilitated in evaluating alternative strategies to make the best use of available resources in severe drought conditions.

Drought, GIS and remote sensing, natural disaster, Saqqez watershed of Kurdistan province in Iran